Del Toro's Pinocchio

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by slumcat

I have lost interest in animated films. I think it now caters exclusively to younger audiences with a few exceptions. Pinocchio was an exception and that's why I saw it and i liked it.

Yeah, I agree. Most mainstream animated movies feel less sophisticated than what they used to be 20-30 years ago.

[DaViD Boulet]

Please tell me this was filmed in 3D... stop-motion 3D is the most incredible 3D (IMO... ala Coraline)...

[baloobas]

I thought this was fantastic. Really dark with stunning animation. I’m not the biggest GDT fan but he knocked it out of the park with this. Don’t miss it.

[MD_Prometh]

Originally Posted by slumcat

I have lost interest in animated films. I think it now caters exclusively to younger audiences with a few exceptions. Pinocchio was an exception and that's why I saw it and i liked it.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners would like a word.

There's plenty of fantastic animation being made worldwide, just because Hollywood's output has been hit and miss lately doesn't mean the medium is dying.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by baloobas

I thought this was fantastic. Really dark with stunning animation. I’m not the biggest GDT fan but he knocked it out of the park with this. Don’t miss it.

uh, yeah ... that

[Show spoiler]ending

left me floored.

[Modren]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Please tell me this was filmed in 3D... stop-motion 3D is the most incredible 3D (IMO... ala Coraline)...

Netflix doesn't support 3D for streaming, so if it was shot in 3D that would be a spectacular waste of money.

[Bubbles-11]

Here's where you can watch some of Del Toro's films on before Pinocchio comes out:

Hellboy: HBO Max
Pan's Labyrinth: Digital ($5 on iTunes currently)
Hellboy 2: Digital
Pacific Rim: HBO Max
Crimson Peak: Blu-ray, Digital
Shape of Water: Hulu? Digital probably
Nightmare Alley: Hulu & HBO Max I believe

[Pi905]

Saw this on Sunday. Painfully beautiful film. So thankful that I was able to see it in theaters. Probably going to watch it again as soon as it drops on Netflix.

[Pi905]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

uh, yeah ... that

[Show spoiler]ending

left me floored.

That part reminded me a lot of (movie title below, word by word in case you haven't seen the movie I'm mentioning)

[Show spoiler]The

[Show spoiler]Green

[Show spoiler]Mile

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by Pi905

That part reminded me a lot of (movie title below, word by word in case you haven't seen the movie I'm mentioning)

[Show spoiler]The

[Show spoiler]Green

[Show spoiler]Mile

That movie actually when my friend and I saw it together at the theater, we didn't talk to one another for a good ten minutes after it's conclusion

[Farerb]

Why no one's talking about this? Where's the poll?

[ArtVanderlay]

I enjoyed it, loved the Del-Toro-isms and it's a technical marvel, but I do feel myself preferring the original Disney version - most likely due to pure nostalgia and having more

[Show spoiler]Jiminy (Sebastian) Cricket. Figaro & Cleo (Disney) vs the monkey (Del-Toro edition) is a tough one to decide which I prefer

But I appreciate this for not being a like-for-like remake which I hear the other 2022 release (Disney+) is akin to.

Really would've gotten a big theatrical release and reception pre-covid.

Was surprised to see both Tilda Swinton & Cate Blanchett in the credits. When I heard the characters I kept wondering if it was either one of them who was speaking, and it turned out they both provide voices.

[Namuhana]

Watched this last night and enjoyed it for the most part. Exquisite animation with some pretty good voice work and a nice score. Most of the songs fell a bit flat for me and some of the story felt uneven in parts, but overall it's an enjoyable movie and one I'll watch again for sure. I'll for sure watch the behind the scenes feature sometime today as well.

[kylor]

By far the best "adaptation" of Pinocchio since 1999 (unless you include the Shrek movies of course).

Definitely liked the padded backstory for Gepetto and I liked the change they made for the ending, something rarely seen in other adaptations.

The score was also fine, it serviced the story and the characters, no issues there.

Although I do have a few nitpicks, but I will spoiler tag them all anyway.

[Show spoiler]First nitpick is with start of the movie, the narration just suddenly starts as if we are picking up right in the middle of someone telling a story. A "Once upon a time" wouldn't have hurt it IMO, it was a bit too abrupt but it is what it is.

Second nitpick is the voice acting in general. We are introduced to an Italian boy and father, yet they do not sound Italian. Although to be fair, they aren't the only Italian characters struggling with an Italian accent (It'sa me, Chris Pratt!). Carlo sounded too English to be Italian, but hey, whatever, the voice actor can sing and that serviced a lot of the story.

Third nitpick are the events that this adaptation depicted. Again we get a depiction of a carnival with "Stromboli" (like the 1940 Disney version) as well as the giant whale Monstro. We have already seen these events, and while I'm sure these events are some of the prominent ones at the start of Pinocchio's journey of becoming a "real boy", it wouldn't have hurt to have had some different events instead (or even included extra). The animated Pinocchio series known as "Mokku of the Oak Tree" covers quite a lot of events including but not limited to the events depicted in this adaptation, proving that there are a lot of other events that could be depicted but are chosen not to be. Again, it is what it is but I wouldn't have minded different and/or extra events to make it stand out even more as trying to be a fresh take.

Again, those are minor nitpicks but I still noticed them. Overall they were not a strong detriment to the movie at all, I enjoyed it for what it was. I'd give it a solid 4/5.

[Bubbles-11]

[MifuneFan]

Earlier today, I attended a special screening of Pinocchio at the Paris theater in NYC, with directors Guillermo del Toro, and Mark Gustafson in attendance for a Q&A after. The entire experience was really wonderful. I thought the film was very good to great overall. I'm not big on musicals, and I didn't particularly care for the songs in this, but besides that, I enjoyed nearly everything else about the film.

I thought the opening, and the ending were the film's strongest parts. The opening pulls at your heartstrings in a similar manner to the opening of Pixar's Up. And the end was also quite emotional, leaving many in my audience sniffling, and tearing up. The stop-motion animation was incredible. It's hard to wrap my head around the amount of work needed to animate something in this way. Del Toro went into great detail about this insane labor of love, which I'll discuss in more detail the Q&A section below.

The visuals of the film were also really great, and very much reminiscent of del Toro's signature style, especially the fantasy/magical creatures. As for the characters, I really thought they did a great job with Gepetto, completely humanizing him, and his grief, and making him somewhat of a flawed father. Pinocchio is certainly a handful, as he tries to learn about the world, and his place in it, but his innocence, and curiosity were really infectious, and hard not to admire (thanks in part to Gregory Mann great voicing). Personally, I think "Sebastian J. Cricket", voiced by Ewan McGregor, absolutely stole the show with his pomp, yet adorable personality, and humorous dialogue about life, and suffering.

The tone of the film can be quite varied. It certainly is far more mature, and complex than the Disney version, and likely any other adaptation, approaching topics of religion, mortality, war, and fascism. Yet, there are also plenty of funny, and silly moments that are completely geared towards a younger audience. Guillermo stated he didn't want to make a typical kids movie, but a movie that kid's can watch, and discuss with their parents, and I think he accomplished a fine balance here.

I feel the movie did drag a little in the middle, especially the military parts, but all in all I still think it was really well-made adaptation, with a lot of touching moments, and excellent animation.

3.5/5

Q&A with Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson



(The low-lighting wreaked havoc with my phone, so forgive the blurriness / bad quality of some photos)

This was such a great Q&A. Guillermo really does come off as big teddy bear. Right away he invited kids to the front, and this one boy came right up to him, and he started showing him the models of Pinocchio that they used to make the stop-motion animation. Soon, even more kids came down to the front, and del Toro got into Mr. Rogers mode, speaking gently to them, telling them about the process of making the film - like how taking 24 pictures of Pinocchio would only be a second of footage. He's not only great with kids, i legit think he could write a book about parenting. Among other things, he talked about the different parenting styles people use, advocating for a less sheltered approach.

He said this project has been at least 15 years in the making. Every time he pitched his vision, they would ask if it was a kid's movie, and he would say no, but it's a movie that kids can watch, and discuss with their parents. It took 1,000 days to shoot this, with hundreds of people having models of the characters, and doing the stop-motion photography. He mentioned one poor animator from Brazil who spent over a year or two simply working on the bedroom in the film. He said they intentionally left imperfections in the film because he thought it felt more life-life to do so.

This was a very personal film for del Toro. He saw it as a young kid in Mexico, and it had a huge impression on him. But he also thought he could add his own take on it. It had a particularly special place for him, and his mother. She would get him Pinocchio toys every year, and she sadly passed before he was able to finish this project, but feels she would be happy with how it turned out (there's a clip of him discussing this below).

He went into great detail on how he made Gepetto, and even Pinocchio flawed characters. How he felt the movie was actually more about Gepetto. How he had to overcome his grief, and go from

[Show spoiler]trying to make Pinocchio into his son, to finally accepting him for who he is by the end

. He definitely gave me a greater appreciation for the film after seeing it from this perspective.


There were some amazing anecdotes during this session. He mentions Cate Blanchett approaching him on the set of Nightmare Alley, and asking if there was any part she could play. And he said you could voice the monkey. He jokingly said she was likely recording dialogue for Tar, and monkey sounds on the same days, since they were being made at roughly the same time. He talked about Ewan McGregor fitting perfectly as Cricket, even though he wasn't their first choice. Apparently he had just come back from a year of riding across the country in a motorcycle, and the next day he came in, not knowing he was going to do voice recordings, and he nailed it. Del They said the kid who played Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) was great, but his voice changed at one point during the film's long development. They joked and said one day he comes to the set sounding like Barry White. They also said he demanded sushi, with del Toro mimicking him saying "give me sashimi!".

Del Toro's final message was that he hoped kids would be inspired by the stop-motion process. That, not everything has to be digital, or virtual. He believes the brain lights up when something is physical. It was a really great discussion, and quite different from the usual, and more formal Q&A's I've attended. And at the end, he got a nice standing ovation from the audience.

Here's a few small clips I took with my phone, and put together. The picture quality isn't great, but audio is fine lol (also apologies for the vertical filming). There's a cute moment I just noticed where del Toro is inviting more kids down, and the boy shakes his head saying he doesn't want to before his mom pushes him along. . My favorite is the last clip, where he talks about his special connection with his mom, and the film.

Guillermo del Toro at the Paris Theater - 12/10/22 - YouTube

[unberechenbar]

Saw this is a theater today. The animation was very well-done and the ending was quite touching but outside of that it didn't make me feel all that emotional. I liked the design of the mythical entities and how they didn't their facial expression. I thought the movie took place in Spain until they showed the map. The war sequences weren't that interesting for me.

[Bubbles-11]

An officially licensed limited edition figure set containing 3 characters (Pinocchio, Geppetto, Sebastian J. Cricket) seems to be showing up at Walmart stores in the US in their "Netflix & Shop" displays

[Beckford]

Second wonderful screen version of the Pinocchio story in three years, the other being Matteo Garrone's stunning Italian film. Both masterful, both essential viewing.
On a whim some years ago when I was working at a bookshop I read the Carlo Collodi book (the Candlewick Illustrated Classic version translated by Emma Rose) and it was marvelous.
Great to see two gifted film directors each do this timeless story such justice.

[Martin_31]

I just finished watching this film. What an excellent picture, really emotional at the beginning and end. While it deals with grief and the way children internalize actions and emotions, I felt more for Geppettto. How difficult it is to be a parent.